Chip pioneer David Ditzel talks Transmeta, Sun and Bell Labs

Audio Episode 7 of Semi-Coherent Computing thrusts us back into the history of computing track in style, as Chris Hipp and I sit down with chip legend David Ditzel.

Ditzel spent about ten years each at Bell Labs, Sun Microsystems and Transmeta, where he served as CEO. In addition, he co-authored a famous paper titled "The Case for the Reduced Instruction Set Computer" with fellow legend Dave Patterson. That paper preceded an explosion of RISC designs.

During our interview, Ditzel discusses his corporate efforts, including some choice anecdotes about Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The chip pioneer also describes his acquisition of the former Soviet Union's supercomputing team.

Along the way, we also hit on where the likes of Intel, Nvidia and Sun have succeeded and where they've failed. And we discover why the chip industry is suffering from a lack of innovation.

Do we find out what Ditzel has planned next? You'll have to listen for the answer to that.